I am having an issue with the connection agent and sorting the data reurned. I have previously used a SQL View and the sorting I specified in the view carried over onto the form table correctly. I now have a view that I grouped. While the sorting works correctly in SQL, PerfectForms does not follow the sorting criteria.

I have tried taking the grouping off the view, and in this case the sorting is correct in PerfectForms. If I use the “Distinct Values Only” option in the action definition the sorting is again incorrect. Essentially if I group the data in either SQL or PerfectForms then the sorting is incorrect.

From a speed standpoint I need to create the list using a single view instead of a multi-step process. Is there way to enforce a sort order using the connection agent actions?

There is currently no ‘sorting’ available in Perfectforms connections. It is something that has been raised to be looked at for a future release to see what could be done.

How you have done this in the past with a ‘view’ would be the best way. Afraid I’m no sql expert so can’t comment on an ideal method for ‘speed’ or the performance difference between what you have successfully used in the past and what you are trying here.

I wonder though if you have lots of ‘connect’ actions all running in the same ‘event’ (ie form is opened, page is opened) that is causing you to look at ‘speed’ and the practical performance of your form may be improved by spreading out these to when they are actually needed and not all on the same ‘event’ ? That has been seen in the past to help

It is actually a bit of the opposite. If I could get the view to pull with correct sorting I would only have 1 connect object running when the form is opened. If the sorting can’t work (which is likely) I would then need multiple behaviors to pull only the data I need which will slow the form down. I was hoping to avoid that scenario.

not sure I follow ? if you can set up your view with the required sorting as you did before can’t you do what you need in the one connect action ? perhaps there is more to this though and maybe seeing your form where even though we won’t be able to run the connect actions you could expand on what you are trying to do in the one connect action. More importantly though, it may be useful to see what you are trying to do in relation to what we want to look at for ‘sorting’ to see if our intentions will give you what you ideally want. if you could send over an export of your form with some explanation of where you see these situations would be happy to check it over and raise with the developers to consider when this is looked at